It’s early in the afternoon and I’m on Amtrak back to Washington. I attended the 11am Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Center City. Today was the last Mass with Archbishop Charles J. Chaput I’ll experience before he retires in a few weeks.

I met Archbishop Chaput in the Cathedral Basilica’s narthex when he arrived here from Denver nine years ago.

It was a gift to be there this morning, alongside so many others, including the Dominicans and the Sisters of Life, who now call Philadelphia home and who renew the Christian community here because of the work of this retiring Archbishop.